Melissa McCarthy responds to Barbra Streisand’s Ozempic comment

Melissa McCarthy has weighed in on Barbra Streisand’s comment asking her if she was taking the weight-loss drug Ozempic.

On Monday 29 April, the Bridesmaids actress took to Instagram to share a since-deleted photo of herself alongside director Adam Shankman while they were attending a charity gala for musical director Matthew Bourne. Streisand commented on the post to ask her a question, which ultimately ended up sparking backlash.

“Pastels only to honour the incredible @matthewbourne13 at the @ctgla gala last night with this fella @adamshankman!!” McCarthy captioned her post at the time. “Thiiiiis much closer to my dream of dancing on stage.”

In the comments, Streisand wrote: “Give him my regards did you take Ozempic?”

Ozempic is a drug typically used to treat Type 2 diabetes, but recently celebrities such as Sharon Osbourne have admitted to taking the medication for off-label weight-loss purposes.

Many commenters were quick to point out how offensive they found the question to be, calling Streisand “rude” or even saying “Shame on you”.

“Babs giving major boomer energy here,” one user even joked.

Other commenters assumed that Streisand might have meant to send McCarthy a personal message and accidentally commented, or that the question was some kind of inside joke from when the two worked together on a song for Streisand’s 2016 album Encore: Movie Partners Sing Broadway.

McCarthy ended up taking to Instagram again to address the comment. The post featured a video of her holding up an old magazine with the young Funny Girl star on the cover with the caption: “@barbrastreisand fan club members only!!!”

“The takeaway — Barbra Streisand knows I exist? She reached out to me. And she thought I looked good. I win the day,” she said, confirming that the comment didn’t bother her.

Streisand also issued a clarification to The Little Mermaid actress, claiming she only wanted to pay her a compliment. “OMG – I went on Instagram to see the photos we’d posted of the beautiful flowers I’d received for my birthday!” she posted on her Instagram Stories with just white text against a black screen.

“Below them was a photo of my friend Melissa McCarthy who I sang with on my Encore album. She looked fantastic! I just wanted to pay her a compliment. I forgot the world is reading!”

McCarthy has previously spoken out about what it was like to work with the A Star is Born actress in an interview with Entertainment Weekly in June 2023. At the time, she explained that she expected her to act very regal.

“That’s what I almost wanted. And then, I think when she opened the door she had leggings on and lunch meat in her hand. And I was like, none of this is what I expected,” McCarthy told the outlet.

“She’s so who she is,” she continued. “And also, when someone who you think you should be curtseying to keeps eating lunch meat, it really kind of levels the playing field. It was really charming. I was like: ‘You’re really pounding lunch meat.’ She’s like: ‘Yeah.’”